The
Themes of Life, Death, Resurrection and Vampires
within Le Fantôme de l'Opéra
| Vampires | Death and the Maiden | Violin of Death | Dance of Death |
| Resurrection & Angel of Music and Death | Draug (Nordic Living Dead) |
| Mort vivant/ living dead | The Nightingale Story | Revenant | Camarde | Pluto/ Hades |
| Edgar Allan Poe | Red Death | Ligeia |
| Resurrection & Angel of Music and Death | Draug (Nordic Living Dead) |
| Mort vivant/ living dead | The Nightingale Story | Revenant | Camarde | Pluto/ Hades |
| Edgar Allan Poe | Red Death | Ligeia |
Vampires
The connection between the Phantom of the Opera and vampires is undeniable. From the coffin he sleeps in, having pale skin, a cool touch that smelled like death, living in an underground tomb, to not eating anything in Christine's presence. In the missing chapter The Magic Envelope/L’enveloppe magique M. Giry is caught with a copy of Le Petit Journal folded down on the penny dreadful 'La Fille du Vampire'. The under lining theme of death and resurrection flows thick in Leroux. Faust about an older man past his prime who makes a packed with the devil to win the love a girl and her killing her baby being born out of wed lock and being redeemed in the end all points and life, death and resurrection. One could argue vampires were know to make pact with the devil to become immortal much like Faust, he prayed on Marguerite's innocents much like a vampire would on a virgin for her blood and with the death of the child then fighting back using religion or a cross is eerily reminiscent of a vampiric theme.
Death and the Maiden
Underneath the it all the base story of Erik and Christine is one of death and the maiden a theme that came out of the Renaissance art which later developed into the more erotic Danse Macabre. From Christine symbolically passing out on stage and being revived in her dressing by her doctor, after singing her heart out for the angel of music. Christine is also know for singing Ophélie from Hamlet, who drowns herself in a lake after Hamlet rejects her causing her to go mad. Erik displaying himself as the living dead or 'mort vivant', who later talks about his dead wife. He even offers to make a two person coffin for Christine and him in his funerary like room, within his tomb like house five cellars bellow the ground. Memento mori is symbolic reminder of the inevitability of death which emphasized Heaven, Hell, and salvation of ones soul in the afterlife. This stands to remind people of the fragility of their lives and how vain were the glories of earthly life. Even the angel of music tries to persuade Christine that loving a living human will drive him back to heaven with such vain earthly pursuits. To further drive this point home the angel of music plays the Resurrection of Lazarus on a violin at her father's grave to pull Christine through the mirror from the world of living to the world of the dead, which could easily be seen as Orpheus, the legendary half god musician and poet, who could charm any living thing with his voice, pulling his dead wife through the underworld, so he could revive her with his music. Joseph Campbell states this is where the hero leaves his or her ordinary world and enters a new dangerous one, where we know the character will never be the same again. Which is a a kind of symbolic character death of leaving the upper world for the lower, the land of the opera for the cellars, life to death or earth to for hell. Even the choice of Othello as the Opera Erik sings with Christine right before she removed his mask has a theme of death surrounding it. Othello ends up suffocating his wife after his supposed friend tells him she has had an affair, which she didn't and we all know what happened to Romeo and Juliet. This is also the theme of a cursed love or the dead loving the living. Ironically their personalities are switch while Christine symbolizes life physically and Erik death mentally Christine is artistically dead till the 'angel of music' touches her soul and then she sings with elated rapture the likes of which Paris has never seen before. Ultimately Erik has breathed life into a girl who was spiritually dead after her father passed, alternatively Christine brought light and joy to Erik's life which was dark and lacking normalcy. If you look at it this way they are the perfect yin-yang in a way, only other things get int he way. We all know a relationship with a young virginal women and an older darker and world weary death will not work. Much like the Greek legend of Persephone the goddess of spring or life and Hades the god of the death and the underworld, who makes her queen by abducting her from earth and dragging her down to hell with him. Erik even scrolls the words of Dies Iræ in red ink over and over in his tomb like room. Dies Iræ means day of wrath for the promise of the dead resurrecting in the end of the world and being Judged, where the saved will be delivered and the unsaved will be cast into the eternal flames of hell.
The violin of death/ le violon du mort
Is mentioned in the I The Lyre of Apollo which is probably a reference to 'La Danse macabre' or the 'The Dance of Death' which is a artistic genre that came from the Middle Ages and was very popular in European folklore. He beacons people from all walks of life to dance along to the grave, normally shown with a pope, emperor, king, child, and a laborer. This is to show that death effects all people no matter their social standing. A kind of 'memento mori' A Latin phrase that states 'remember that you too shall die' Which is an artistic symbol of the inevitability of death and the vanity of earthly life. Memento mori is most obvious in funeral art. During the 15th century the rich would decorate their tombs with various stages of rotting corpses. So in a way Érik as the Angel of Music on Father Daaé grave is literally becoming a 'Memento mori' and playing the violin effectively turns him into the 'The Dance of Death'. It's interesting that the 'Angel of music' says it '...will play the Resurrection of Lazarus, with the violin of death.' Now why didn't the Angel just say it '... will play the Resurrection of Lazarus, with father's Daaé violin? It seems to me even then the 'anegl of music'
The Dance of Death
Red Death has come to the Masked ball
The Phantom of the Opera shows up to the Masqurade ball as Red Death. The figure of 'Red Death' comes from the short story by Edgar Allan Poe called "The Masque of the Red Death" originally published in Graham's Magazine in 1842 . In the story Prince Prospero and his court indifferent to the people's suffering from the red death plague, they try to protect themselves from the it by walling themselves up in the prince's luxurious abbey. They host in 7 different rooms a masquerade ball, each decorated in different colors. While they are partying they see an tall, gaunt figure dressed as a red death victim draped in a shroud speckled in blood. "The mask which concealed the visage was made so nearly to resemble the countenance of a stiffened corpse that the closest scrutiny must have had difficulty in detecting the cheat." (The Masque of the Red Death, by Poe) The figure of red death goes from room to room, the guest all too afraid to confront the figure let him pass them by. When midnight chimes the figure of red death is found in the last room that is the colors red and black. When Prospero confronts the figure in this room and demands the figure remove its mask so he can know who it is to hang them for their blasphemous mockery, when the figure turns to look at him, he screams and falls over dead. The other parties rush him and remove the mask and costume to find nothing inside. Guest start dying from the plague one after another. The final line of the story reads "And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all."
Hear Dance Macabre by Camille Saint-Saëns
One of the songs plaid at the Masquerade
Red Death
Poe's Red Death doesn't just manifest as a disease but a figure built up of death, his mask is a face of a corpse he is carrying the plague with him. The Phantom wore a red velvet cloak and on the back was embroidered in gold letters « Ne me touchez pas ! Je suis la Mort rouge qui passe !… » "Don't touch me! I'm the Red Death passing through!" reminded everyone at the party that no mortal, not even a prince, the rich or the poor can escape death.
Au bal masqué
Ce personnage était vêtu tout d’écarlate avec un immense chapeau à plumes sur une tête de mort. Ah ! la belle imitation de tête de mort que c’était là ! Les rapins autour de lui, lui faisaient un grand succès, le félicitaient… lui demandaient chez quel maître, dans quel atelier, fréquenté de Pluton, on lui avait fait, dessiné, maquillé une aussi belle tête de mort ! La « Camarde » elle-même avait dû poser.
|
At the Masked Ball
This figure was dressed all in scarlet with a huge feathered hat on a skull. Ah! what a beautiful imitation of a skull that was there! The students around him made him a great success, congratulated him… asked him by which master, in which workshop, frequented by Pluto, had he been made, drawn; made up such a beautiful skull! The "Camarde" herself must have posed.
|
Edgar Allan Poe
Ligeia
Ligeia is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1838 a master writer of macabre for his time and even to this day.
The story Ligeia has the theme of life and death and resurrection. Told through the eyes of the narrator who marries Ligeia. The setting is in an old stone castle in an unknown remote part of the world. The inside is dark furnished with huge ottomans and tapestries. The wind blowing outside causes strange noises, making an eerie "phantasmagoric" effect on those who live there. A ghostly castle full of decay. Both The Phantom of the Opera and Ligeia with their gothic settings have strong elements of the supernatural to them. And both have an almost obsessive love story to them. In both stories details about family of origin and backgrounds have been obscured. This causes a feeling of uncertainty and vagueness. In both cases the last name is unknown to the main character. The narrator of the story who is deeply in love with Ligeia, neither knows her family of origin or her last name, in his case he can't even recall where or how they met either. Similar with Erik, despite Christine asking questions, she never finds out Erik's last name nor much about his past at all. Although she does remember how they met in the for of the Angel of Music. One could argue that her going through the mirror and into the "Phantom's" world where she learns of the man behind the angel and the deformity behind the mask, the details of Chistine going through the mirror are somewhat obscured in how Leroux chose to describe it. It was left as an almost supernatural effect even though we know later on when Raoul and Christine disccuse the angel of music is just a man it still retains it's supernatural quality, and both are left speachless in trying to explain how it was done. It isn't until the very end when Daroga divulges how the trick was accomplished does the supernatraul quality almost become mundane.
Ligeia has a unique understanding of life and has rare and perfect knowledge of many fields of study. She is said to have a unique beauty; tall and slender with a "placid cast of beauty" and speaks with the "thrilling eloquence of (a) low musical language." who was anything but perfect who was "most violently a prey to the tumultuous vultures of stern passion." In both cases Erik and Ligeia wisdom is consummate far superior to their counterpart yet both willing to help teach them. Both relationships were seeming perfect until something changes Ligeia grows ill and Christine unmasks Erik. When Ligeia becomes ill a ghostly hue covers her and she composes a poem called 'Man' which is about the mortality of humans and the inevitability and finality of death. In the poem called 'Man' a host of weeping angels watch a group of mimes perform a play. The mimes who stand for God, seemed to be watched and controlled by a dark formless shadow who looms in the background. A 'Phantom' chases the mimes around in circles, which they never seem to be able to capture. Then emerges a monstrous crawling form which eats the mimes. However we find in the end the only hero of the poem is 'The Conqueror Worm'
Ligeia who is thought to be dead has a strong will to want to live. Much like Erik who is built up of death neither can help the strong element of death imposed on their lives even so both have a fervent will to live. Strong themes of Resurrection are also present. As Ligeia belief is that only the strong can survive death, that only the weak die. Erik does whatever it take to get what he wants sometimes even using bizarre, superhuman and extreme means, and will stop at nothing in order to get it. He sees Christine as the life element and yet her soul is dead due to her father's death she the yin to his yang of being built up of death yet having a strong will to live. Much like the Resurrection of Lazarus and a skeleton violinist who plays the tune. The theme of life and death and resurrection are just as important and apparent. Both stories weave the themes of sacredness of death and the beauty of dying. When Christine says “Oh, tonight I gave you my soul and now I’m dead.” And the Angel of Music responds “Your soul is very beautiful, my child,” replied the grave man’s voice, “and I thank you. There is no emperor who has ever received such a gift! The angels wept tonight.”
Much like Erik who wrote Dies Irae all over staves of music and finally finishing his Don Juan Triumphant then taking it with him in his coffin and going to sleep forever, like Ligeia and her 'Man' . There is some odd parallels to Ligeia and the story of the Phantom. It is clear Leroux drew on the Masque of the Red Death by Poe. If it not also possible that Leroux drew upon some of the ideas from other Poe stories as well. Ligeia in her living metaphysical and unearthly qualities does end up coming back after everyone thought she had died. Unlike Erik who lived life being a living corpse with metaphysical and unearthly qualities finds a kind of peace in the end and dies with a kind of redemption which is a kind of resurrection one could argue of the most holy form. Christine represents the material world and none metaphysical as she chooses to marry Raoul therefor as her Angel said he has to return to heaven if she chooses earthly pleasure over heavenly ones. The narrator after Ligeia death marries Rowena who is excatly oposite of Ligeia with blond hair and blue eyes, and their wedding room looks like a funeral chamber which is excatly how Erik's room is described. The narrator finds himself alone at night watching over his deceased wife corpse. Ligeia is the unearthly metaphysical, while Rowena is exactly the opposite mortal and material qualities stuck in the physical world. Ligeias comes back alive in the body of Rowena after she passes on. The narrator realizes it's Ligeia and not Rowena from her wild eyes looking back at him, which profoudnly effects him. Much like the firy eyes of Erik who Raoul could not unsee and who Chistine says can only be seen in the dark they too seem to leave a lasting impression
The story Ligeia has the theme of life and death and resurrection. Told through the eyes of the narrator who marries Ligeia. The setting is in an old stone castle in an unknown remote part of the world. The inside is dark furnished with huge ottomans and tapestries. The wind blowing outside causes strange noises, making an eerie "phantasmagoric" effect on those who live there. A ghostly castle full of decay. Both The Phantom of the Opera and Ligeia with their gothic settings have strong elements of the supernatural to them. And both have an almost obsessive love story to them. In both stories details about family of origin and backgrounds have been obscured. This causes a feeling of uncertainty and vagueness. In both cases the last name is unknown to the main character. The narrator of the story who is deeply in love with Ligeia, neither knows her family of origin or her last name, in his case he can't even recall where or how they met either. Similar with Erik, despite Christine asking questions, she never finds out Erik's last name nor much about his past at all. Although she does remember how they met in the for of the Angel of Music. One could argue that her going through the mirror and into the "Phantom's" world where she learns of the man behind the angel and the deformity behind the mask, the details of Chistine going through the mirror are somewhat obscured in how Leroux chose to describe it. It was left as an almost supernatural effect even though we know later on when Raoul and Christine disccuse the angel of music is just a man it still retains it's supernatural quality, and both are left speachless in trying to explain how it was done. It isn't until the very end when Daroga divulges how the trick was accomplished does the supernatraul quality almost become mundane.
Ligeia has a unique understanding of life and has rare and perfect knowledge of many fields of study. She is said to have a unique beauty; tall and slender with a "placid cast of beauty" and speaks with the "thrilling eloquence of (a) low musical language." who was anything but perfect who was "most violently a prey to the tumultuous vultures of stern passion." In both cases Erik and Ligeia wisdom is consummate far superior to their counterpart yet both willing to help teach them. Both relationships were seeming perfect until something changes Ligeia grows ill and Christine unmasks Erik. When Ligeia becomes ill a ghostly hue covers her and she composes a poem called 'Man' which is about the mortality of humans and the inevitability and finality of death. In the poem called 'Man' a host of weeping angels watch a group of mimes perform a play. The mimes who stand for God, seemed to be watched and controlled by a dark formless shadow who looms in the background. A 'Phantom' chases the mimes around in circles, which they never seem to be able to capture. Then emerges a monstrous crawling form which eats the mimes. However we find in the end the only hero of the poem is 'The Conqueror Worm'
Ligeia who is thought to be dead has a strong will to want to live. Much like Erik who is built up of death neither can help the strong element of death imposed on their lives even so both have a fervent will to live. Strong themes of Resurrection are also present. As Ligeia belief is that only the strong can survive death, that only the weak die. Erik does whatever it take to get what he wants sometimes even using bizarre, superhuman and extreme means, and will stop at nothing in order to get it. He sees Christine as the life element and yet her soul is dead due to her father's death she the yin to his yang of being built up of death yet having a strong will to live. Much like the Resurrection of Lazarus and a skeleton violinist who plays the tune. The theme of life and death and resurrection are just as important and apparent. Both stories weave the themes of sacredness of death and the beauty of dying. When Christine says “Oh, tonight I gave you my soul and now I’m dead.” And the Angel of Music responds “Your soul is very beautiful, my child,” replied the grave man’s voice, “and I thank you. There is no emperor who has ever received such a gift! The angels wept tonight.”
Much like Erik who wrote Dies Irae all over staves of music and finally finishing his Don Juan Triumphant then taking it with him in his coffin and going to sleep forever, like Ligeia and her 'Man' . There is some odd parallels to Ligeia and the story of the Phantom. It is clear Leroux drew on the Masque of the Red Death by Poe. If it not also possible that Leroux drew upon some of the ideas from other Poe stories as well. Ligeia in her living metaphysical and unearthly qualities does end up coming back after everyone thought she had died. Unlike Erik who lived life being a living corpse with metaphysical and unearthly qualities finds a kind of peace in the end and dies with a kind of redemption which is a kind of resurrection one could argue of the most holy form. Christine represents the material world and none metaphysical as she chooses to marry Raoul therefor as her Angel said he has to return to heaven if she chooses earthly pleasure over heavenly ones. The narrator after Ligeia death marries Rowena who is excatly oposite of Ligeia with blond hair and blue eyes, and their wedding room looks like a funeral chamber which is excatly how Erik's room is described. The narrator finds himself alone at night watching over his deceased wife corpse. Ligeia is the unearthly metaphysical, while Rowena is exactly the opposite mortal and material qualities stuck in the physical world. Ligeias comes back alive in the body of Rowena after she passes on. The narrator realizes it's Ligeia and not Rowena from her wild eyes looking back at him, which profoudnly effects him. Much like the firy eyes of Erik who Raoul could not unsee and who Chistine says can only be seen in the dark they too seem to leave a lasting impression
Camarde
La Camarde [kamard] : name comes from the word 'camard' which means "who has a flat nose/qui a le nez plat " when applied as a verb it means someone with a small flat nose, a snub nose or no nose at all. Like how the sphinx face is now. La Camarde is also an allegorical figure of death represented as a skeleton or a emaciated corpse, but always shown with no nose. Different then the grim reaper who is a folk figure called "Grande Faucheuse" or simply "Faucheuse" in French and who is always a skeleton with a scythe. La Camarde is the embodiment of death rather then a a figure who brings dead, La Camarde is death symbolically personified. La Camarde has been depicted in art, literature, songs, poetry, theater and scientific writings. Once again Leroux is trying to describe Érik's appearance in an era were gothic ideas, zombies and horror movies of modern man was absent. He uses popular art and figures in which to try and explain how he looked. Interestingly enough it is said it you were "to marry the Comrade/épouser la camarde" means you are going to die.
Draug
Draugr [drrīyur] - draugr (Old Norse), dreygur (Faroese) and draug (Danish, Swedish, Norwegian), is an is an undead creature, a corpse, like a phantom or specter a type of revenant from the Scandinavian folktales. They live in their burial mound graves called cairns (man made stack of stones) or royal palaces, often guarding treasures where they are buried. They are animated corpses with a corporeal body, unlike ghosts, with similar physical abilities as in life. In Norse mythology anyone who met or saw a draugr would be under the threat of imminent death. They have superhuman strength but can also killed by cutting off their head. Older literature makes clear distinctions between sea-draugar and land-draugar. They have superhuman strength and powers, they can predict the future and transform themselves into animal forms, they can increase their height, smell of death, pale or blue like a corpse and hideous to look at. Unlike zombies they have a semblance of intelligence. They guard their treasure, wreak havoc on living beings, or torment those who wronged them in life. They can also appear as wisps of smoke, go through solid rock and had numerous magical abilities. They have said to sometimes drink the blood of victims as well as curse them, and drive them mad. They have the ability to enter into the dreams of the living they will frequently leave a gift behind so that the living person will know for sure the visit is real. To protect one self from the dreygur a pair of open iron scissors was placed on the chest of the recently deceased. It is interesting that Christine grabs a pare of scissors in order to protect herself. If one knows the proper incantation you can make them subservient.
“But one can find out where he lives. One can go in search of him. Now that we know that Erik is not a ghost, one can speak to him and force him to answer!” ~ Apollo's Lyre, POTO Leroux
He pushed, he pressed, he groped... but the mirror, as it would seems, obeys Erik only... Perhaps all his searching was useless with such a mirror... Perhaps all one must do is say certain words (an incantation) ... When he was a small child, he was told stories where there were things that obeyed spoken words (refernce to Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves)! ~ "Christine Christine" POTO Leroux |
In other words if Raoul knew the proper incantation to get into Erik's underworld he could force him to answer. Interesting parallel, it's just a thought. Erik predicted the future a few times but the biggest one is where he tell Mme. Giry her daughter Meg would become an Empress in 1885. Erik is also said to have some animal like qualities and posses the ability to disappear even into walls.
Revenant
From different cultures folklore such as English, Irish Celtic, and Norse a revenant 'returning, coming back' (French) is a corpse that has been reanimated to haunt the living. Used more as a generic term for the undead. They are considered scary to the living because they want to take revenge for injustices they have suffered. They are said to have an evil mind. Jean-Claude Schmitt a French medievalist claimed in the 12th and 16th century central Europeans divided the undead into different categories revenants , Lazarus , souls and ghosts. Ghosts wore a translucent shroud, lazarus appeared like a resurrected person and revenant resemble living people. Macabre type spirits like a revenant is shown at various stages of decay. In Norse mythology anyone who met or saw a revenant would be under the threat of imminent death. They have superhuman strength but can also killed by cutting off their head.
Pluto and Hades
Pluto or Ploútōn/Πλούτων also known as Hades, is the Greek ruler of the underworld, known for forcefully abducting Persephone the goddess of grain and vegetation, to be his wife and the queen of the underworld. Because he has fallen in love with Persephone, Zeus allows him to abduct her knowing Demeter her mother the goddess of harvest and fertility will never allow him to marry her daughter and take her down bellow with him. Determined to have her as his wife anyway one day while Persephone was in a garden picking flowers with nymphs, she plucked a beautiful Narcissus and suddenly the earth split open and Hades abducts the young girl on his chariot of black horses and fleas back to the underworld. She gives a cry out to her mother who can not find her. (Interesting that Narcissus is also a god who was punished for denying Echo's love who turned into nothing but an echo. Nemesis, the goddess of revenge. Seeing his reflection in a glassy pool of water he falls in love with it, not realizing it was only a reflection of himself at first. He ends up falling even more in love with the reflection when he realizes it is him staring back, realizing his love could never be reciprocated for the remainder of his life he stared at his reflection. He looses ht will to live and slowly died from the fire of passion burning in him. Where he died a Narcissus flower grew. In a strange parallel one could argue in a way the Narcissus stands as a symbol of the mirror and entering the neither world of death. Even stranger Leroux describes a small fountain behind the walls, further paralleling this idea.) Demeter distraught at not being able to locate her missing daughter. The earth starved and withered away because she would not allow anything to grow until her daughter is found. Helios the sun god tells Demeter that Hades has abducted her daughter. Hades refuses to allow her to come back. Persephone is tricked by Hades and eats 6 pomegranate seeds. Hermes was sent to take Persephone back but because she eat food from the underworld she is forever linked to the underworld and intern Hades. She was required to stay 6 months of the year underground with Hades and the rest of the time she could be with the gods and her mother Demeter. Hades is also portrayed a loving husband to Persephone. Hades and Persephone are the perfect balance of life and death.
Leroux most certainly drew upon the images of Hades abducting Persephone for Erik taking her through the mirror and the abduction that fallows. Right down to the boat sailing across thew River Styx and comparing Erik's shadow rowing to Charon the ferryman of the underworld, who rows the newly dead in his boat across the river in Hades. Christine ate some crayfish, a chicken wing and drank a little Tokay wine, reminiscent in this environment of Persephone eating 6 pomegranate seeds the symbal of life.
The Life and death
&
The Nightingale
"Leroux mentions "Little Lotti" and Hans Christian Andersen in the Enchanted Violin chapter. "Little Lotti" is a poem by Hippolyte Valmore that was published in 1879, with the story of a father who find an injured bird and gives him to his little girl who puts it in a cage and nurses him back to health. However once the bird is healed it won't stop singing to get out and back to the forest which is its home. She brings it seed and cuddles it but all it wants is freedom. One day she goes out to see her bird and it is laying at the bottom of the cage dead.
Later on in the chapter Leroux mentions Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish poet and author, who wrote a fairy tale called the "The Nightingale" in 1843, with a similar story line. This time an Emperor hears that there is a Nightingale who sings beautifully so he orders a servant to find the nightingale and bring it back to the palace. He sets it upon a gold perch, amazed by the voice of the Nightingale he begins to cry, filled with emotion he asks the nightingale to stay with him. The bird excepts but is kept in a cage and is aloud to be kept on a silver string around its leg so it cannot fly away when the two take walks. The Emperor's palace is made of porcelain and on some occasions it is polished so that the walls and floors sparkle in the light of thousands of gold lamps. The Emperor's seat is made of gold. The palace is surrounded by a garden full of flowers and a lake that reaches to the sea. It is the artificial world that the nightingale is supposed to adapt. The Nightingale is ignored when Emperor is given a golden jewel covered mechanical nightingale and comes to prefer it to the living one. The Nightingale leaves and returns to the forest where it once came, happy to be free. But the Emperor soon becomes board of the mechanical one who only sings the same song. Eventually the mechanical nightingale breaks down. The Emperor falls ill and remarks "I am cold and pale and the halls of the palace are silent. I am dying slowly...too slowly. The monotony is deadening. If only someone would sing to me! Music would drive away the doom that weighs on my chest. Even the moonlight streaming through the window is silent." He grows sicker and when he is near death, the nightingale returns and her song restores him back to health. The Emperor is infinitely grateful to the nightingale. The Emperor apologies to the nightingale and asks if she would like to stay with him forever, but the nightingale more than anything wanted her freedom, but she promises to come back and visited him everyday. She keeps her promises and the Emperor was happy.
Andersen's story is a tribute to the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, whose nickname was the "Swedish Nightingale" and a highly regarded Opera singers of the 19th century whom he had unrequited love for. Jenny Lind fell in love with the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin who wrote a letter stating that he felt "better" when she sang for him. She tried to marry him in Paris on May 1849, but was unsuccessful, she had to flee due to a cholera epidemic, which he later died of on October 1849. She never recovered from his death. She wrote to Anderson "I would have been happy to die for this my first and last, deepest, purest love." Andersen wrote in his diary, "Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!" It's clear the story inspired art, music, love, nature, life, and death, major themes in the Phantom of the Opera as well. Even Andersen himself may have inspired Leroux. Unrequited love seemed to be Andersen's life theme.
Erik lives in a seemingly ordinary house on a lake with electric light, false with fake walls that are decorated with fake flowers and away from the light of day and nature. It even features a torture chamber with an artificial African jungle complete with an iron tree. One could say the Emperor who was close to death by being' built up of death' kidnaps a 'Swedish Nightingale' who's voice revives life in him and brings it back to his domain, he asks if the song bird will stay with him, but like the nightingale the song bird needs life, and nature to thrive not a tomb so he ultimately has to let her go. But she comes back and visits him and sings for him. Ultimately she return one last time with his ring.
The theme even shows up in Phantom by Susan Kay, The Rose and the Nightingale
"...the story of the white rose who loved a nightingale against the will Allah.
"The night after night the nightingale came to beg for the divine love, but though the rose trembled at the sound of his voice, her petals remained closed to him..."
Flower and bird, two species never meant to mate. Yet at length, the rose overcame her fear and from that single forbidden union was born the red rose that Allah never intended the world to know."
(Phantom by Susan Kay ~ Christine)
Later on in the chapter Leroux mentions Hans Christian Andersen, a Danish poet and author, who wrote a fairy tale called the "The Nightingale" in 1843, with a similar story line. This time an Emperor hears that there is a Nightingale who sings beautifully so he orders a servant to find the nightingale and bring it back to the palace. He sets it upon a gold perch, amazed by the voice of the Nightingale he begins to cry, filled with emotion he asks the nightingale to stay with him. The bird excepts but is kept in a cage and is aloud to be kept on a silver string around its leg so it cannot fly away when the two take walks. The Emperor's palace is made of porcelain and on some occasions it is polished so that the walls and floors sparkle in the light of thousands of gold lamps. The Emperor's seat is made of gold. The palace is surrounded by a garden full of flowers and a lake that reaches to the sea. It is the artificial world that the nightingale is supposed to adapt. The Nightingale is ignored when Emperor is given a golden jewel covered mechanical nightingale and comes to prefer it to the living one. The Nightingale leaves and returns to the forest where it once came, happy to be free. But the Emperor soon becomes board of the mechanical one who only sings the same song. Eventually the mechanical nightingale breaks down. The Emperor falls ill and remarks "I am cold and pale and the halls of the palace are silent. I am dying slowly...too slowly. The monotony is deadening. If only someone would sing to me! Music would drive away the doom that weighs on my chest. Even the moonlight streaming through the window is silent." He grows sicker and when he is near death, the nightingale returns and her song restores him back to health. The Emperor is infinitely grateful to the nightingale. The Emperor apologies to the nightingale and asks if she would like to stay with him forever, but the nightingale more than anything wanted her freedom, but she promises to come back and visited him everyday. She keeps her promises and the Emperor was happy.
Andersen's story is a tribute to the Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind, whose nickname was the "Swedish Nightingale" and a highly regarded Opera singers of the 19th century whom he had unrequited love for. Jenny Lind fell in love with the Polish composer Fryderyk Chopin who wrote a letter stating that he felt "better" when she sang for him. She tried to marry him in Paris on May 1849, but was unsuccessful, she had to flee due to a cholera epidemic, which he later died of on October 1849. She never recovered from his death. She wrote to Anderson "I would have been happy to die for this my first and last, deepest, purest love." Andersen wrote in his diary, "Almighty God, thee only have I; thou steerest my fate, I must give myself up to thee! Give me a livelihood! Give me a bride! My blood wants love, as my heart does!" It's clear the story inspired art, music, love, nature, life, and death, major themes in the Phantom of the Opera as well. Even Andersen himself may have inspired Leroux. Unrequited love seemed to be Andersen's life theme.
Erik lives in a seemingly ordinary house on a lake with electric light, false with fake walls that are decorated with fake flowers and away from the light of day and nature. It even features a torture chamber with an artificial African jungle complete with an iron tree. One could say the Emperor who was close to death by being' built up of death' kidnaps a 'Swedish Nightingale' who's voice revives life in him and brings it back to his domain, he asks if the song bird will stay with him, but like the nightingale the song bird needs life, and nature to thrive not a tomb so he ultimately has to let her go. But she comes back and visits him and sings for him. Ultimately she return one last time with his ring.
The theme even shows up in Phantom by Susan Kay, The Rose and the Nightingale
"...the story of the white rose who loved a nightingale against the will Allah.
"The night after night the nightingale came to beg for the divine love, but though the rose trembled at the sound of his voice, her petals remained closed to him..."
Flower and bird, two species never meant to mate. Yet at length, the rose overcame her fear and from that single forbidden union was born the red rose that Allah never intended the world to know."
(Phantom by Susan Kay ~ Christine)